Flyers 5 takeaways: Anaheim a much-needed slumpbuster

Sean Couturier scored his fourth of the season in the Flyers' desperately needed win over the Anaheim Ducks.(Photo: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports)

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Claude Giroux walked out of the Flyers’ locker room carrying his equipment bag and something else he hasn’t had in a while: a smile.

“Forgot what that felt like,” he quipped as he passed reporters.

His Flyers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks that checked so many boxes the Flyers had empty recently.

Score first: check.

Pound the opposition with chances at the net: check

Face some adversity: check.

For only the second time all season, the Flyers scored the game’s first goal. Sean Couturier snapped a 1-for-20 streak on the power play with a tip-in for his fourth of the season. It helped the Flyers play from a position of strength rather than scrape and claw to get back in the game.

The Flyers never trailed in the game. Even though it was always a one-goal game, the Flyers were in the driver’s seat. Pontus Aberg scored his second goal of the night to tie the game with 1:15 left in regulation and Nolan Patrick scored the game-winner 21 seconds later.

“It’s in those times where you gotta be prepared defensively,” Couturier said. “You don’t want to give up that little chance that costs you and yeah, we played a good game. We controlled the puck a lot and created a lot of chances, but I thought we did a good job defensively, coming back in the slot there and not giving up second chances. Moose (Brian Elliott) made the saves we needed.”

Here are four more takeaways from Tuesday night’s game…

Taking advantage of a weak team

For as desperate as the Flyers were — losers of three straight entering the game — the Ducks had lost five in a row and were hemorrhaging shot attempts in their own end. John Gibson had been under assault all season and they went to Miller Tuesday night and gave up the same chances. The Ducks lead the league by allowing an average of 38.8 shots per game.

Entrance to the prime scoring areas was there for the Flyers and they took it. Couturier’s goal was a tip in front and so was Travis Konecny’s, after he got a stick on Claude Giroux’s shot that went off Ivan Provorov’s right foot.

“They kind of play a man-on-man system in the D-zone,” Patrick said. “With our speed we tried to do a lot of scissor plays and hold on to pucks and use our speed and strength to our advantage. I thought we did a good job at it.”

Making the assault on Ryan Miller’s net stand out even more, the Flyers had one of their best defensive games on the other end of the ice.

“They had a lot of puck possession coming through the slot area, but we were filling lanes and taking away shots and forcing them to look for other plays,” Elliott said. “I thought that effort was really good and when they did take the shot, there was a lot of good sticks, good blocked shots out there for us.”

21 seconds

Next shift, the Flyers answered. They were in the driver’s seat all night and a play like that would have been enough to rattle them in the first 11 games of the season. Tuesday night they responded nearly immediately.

Oskar Lindblom fed a wide-open Patrick for the game-winning goal as he was all alone in the slot. Even if he felt a little lucky to score it.

“Did you see the shot? That’s one of the worst shots I’ve ever taken,” Patrick said. “I’m not gonna lie to you guys and say I was aiming there.”

Still, the response was one the Flyers desperately needed.

“It’s part of the game. You’ve got to know how to respond and stay positive,” Patrick said. “I think Oskar made an unreal play there and (Jake Voracek) keeping it at the blue line, he got it down low and found him.”

Provorov looks like Provorov again

One of the biggest disappointments in the first few weeks of the season had been Ivan Provorov looking nothing like himself. Both the coach and general manager admitted he was making several uncharacteristic poor plays with the puck. At times, his reads were off also.

Provorov claimed he wasn’t hurt, definitely not still dealing with the Grade 3 AC separation he suffered in his left shoulder in Game 6 of the Flyers’ playoff series last year. He still looked hesitant for the first time in his career. He had taken some steps toward looking like himself in recent games. Tuesday’s was the biggest step of the season and not just because he finally got his first goal.

After the Flyers took the lead on his tally the Ducks found a seam in the Flyers’ defense and Pontus Aberg got the puck and shot the gap but Provorov backchecked hard and got to Aberg’s stick before he could shoot, sending the puck out of play.

“All I know is that he had one blocked shot — it was basically a breakaway and he came out of nowhere, a little snake tongue and got it for me,” Elliott said. “That’s a big break for me. He’s been consistently getting better and better, for sure.”

“I think it was just another game for me,” Provorov added. “I’ve felt great since preseason just playing my game. Today I got a goal, but it’s not changing my goal. If I do get points and some games I don’t, it doesn’t mean I’m playing worse than the other games.”

While the player didn’t want to admit it, everyone else saw it.

“Provy was good tonight,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “Provy draws a lot of attention. Sometimes when things don’t go well for our team he draws the negative attention, but you’ve got to remember he’s playing against the other team’s best player every night. Hey, that’s his job and he loves that challenge. Tonight he was good. He was on top of everything and he was very sharp.”

Finding a pulse and an edge

Not only did the Flyers score the game’s first goal, they had some attitude before they did. General manager Ron Hextall recalled Nicolas-Aube-Kubel and Tyrell Goulbourne from the minors for that reason and while the latter didn’t play, the Flyers found an edge before the former even stepped on the ice.

The team said they didn’t think there was one play or one player who would provide the spark and it looked like it was there early on.

“I thought we came prepared,” Couturier said. “We were ready to go battle. We came out strong, shot a lot of pucks on net, created some chances and we (stuck) up for each other too.”

Konecny was mixing it up with the much bigger and much taller Ryan Getzlaf. Wayne Simmonds dug for a puck under Ryan Miller’s glove before he heard a whistle and wrestled with Joseph Blandisi once the Ducks took offense. The Flyers similarly protected Brian Elliott in the first when Blandisi tried the same. That simply hadn’t been part of their game in the last two weeks.